a. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention relates to new and useful improvements in apparatus for removing tail portions of poultry from the remaining carcass and more particularly to apparatus which will accomplish these ends in an accurate and clean manner in eviscerating lines after the poultry has gone through a final wash process.
b. Prior Art Statement
In large scale commercial chicken processing applications, where it is desired to produce quality products, manual cutting of a chicken is undesirable because of the excessive labor costs, and apparatus which accurately and properly cuts chicken into its component parts without fragmenting or splitting the bones is necessary. U.S. Pat. No. 3,943,600 which is assigned to Campbell Soup Company is directed to apparatus and methods for producing a quality product in the environment of a large scale commercial processing operation. While the invention therein disclosed solved many of the problems in the careful removal of wings, thighs, and breasts of poultry without cutting or splitting the bones and without employing considerable manual labor, it has been found that manual labor in dressing a chicken and removing the oil sack to expedite sectioning the chicken may be eliminated be severing the tail from the carcass of the bird in a manner which removes the oil sack.
Prior to the present invention, removal of the oil sack and entrails, was accomplished manually, and more recently, such manual operations were drastically reduced but were still necessary in an operation where a transverse cut between the tail and the anus of the body of the bird was accomplished by automated cutting means as in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,744,087. This patent provides for an automated method of making such a cut on the body of a chicken regardless of its variations in size, however, the cut is utilized only to permit the manual removal of the intestines of the bird and only to serve as a starting cut for manually cutting the skin of the bird.
Certain other prior art patents illustrate conventional shackle arrangements for conveying poultry into infeed guides, however, they relate to severing the heads and neck of the birds, see for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,056,161 and 3,277,518. These patents are not directed to the problems encountered in interacting with shackled poultry to grasp and receive the tail end portions of variously sized poultry for their severance from the carcass.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a device for severing the tails, and particularly the oil sack found in such tails, from the remaining carcass of the poultry in an automated and efficient manner, which eliminates manual labor generally utilized in such processing.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a device which operates in conjunction with shackle conveyed poultry of various sizes and weights to seek out and receive tails of variously sized poultry guiding same into a cutter such that the cut is, within certain limits, made at the correct location on the body, regardless of variations in size.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a compact and rugged unit which is easily repaired and may be utilized to automatically remove chicken tails from birds on either right handed or left handed eviscerating lines.
A further object of the present invention is to provide novel apparatus which includes a novel mechanical feeding mechanism to properly position the carcass and feed it into the cutting blade.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a novel infeed construction which is laterally adjustable and which automatically pivots to seek out and capture the tail to be cut, thereafter guiding same properly into the cutting blade for severance of the tail whereupon the device again pivots back to its original position in readiness to capture and guide the next advancing tail of the shackled poultry.
Still yet a further object of the present invention is to meet the USDA requirements which mandate that no cutting debris enter into the poultry cavity and therefore the present invention provides a system of fluid showers which maintains the carcass of the bird debrisless while at the same time increases the efficiency of the cutting operation by maintaining a clean cutting blade and cutting area.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide novel apparatus having the features and characteristics as set forth above which is of relatively simplified construction, is easy to maintain, adjust and clean, and is entirely efficient and effective in operation and use.